HIRAGANA AND KATAKANA:

TIPS FOR AVOIDING CONFUSION

 

This document is intended for those who have learnt the two phonetic syllabaries of Japanese but who occasionally confuse similar characters:

‚«A‚³G@@ƒTA‚ΉG@@‚߁A‚ʁG@@ƒiAƒG@@‚ιA‚λ;@@ƒVAƒcG@@ƒ\Aƒ“G@ƒNAƒPA

and so on.

 

 

1.    Certain characters are almost identical in both hiragana and katakana:

 

Hiragana         Katakana

 

‚€                  ƒE       u

‚©                  ƒJ       ka

‚«                  ƒL       ki

‚Ή                  ƒZ       se

‚±                  ƒR       ko

‚Ι                  ƒj       ni

‚Φ                  ƒw       he

‚ΰ                  ƒ‚       mo

‚β                  ƒ„       ya

‚θ                  ƒŠ       ri (the similarity is more marked in written hiragana)

 

*     Thinking of the hiragana ‚€ (u)Afor example, will help you distinguish between the katakana ƒt (fu), ƒ (wa), and ƒE (u), because of the small stroke at the top.

 

*     Thinking of the hiragana ‚θ (ri) will help you distinguish between the katakana ƒŠ(ri) and ƒ‹(ru).

 

 

 

2.    <*>Similar Katakana:

 

The more often you see a word, the more likely you are to remember it.  Association will help you call to mind an elusive character:

 

*     ƒtƒ‰ƒC                furai                (deep-fried food)

ƒƒCƒ“                wain                (wine)

ƒEƒCƒXƒL|        uisukii             (whisky)

 

*     ƒN(ku) and ƒP (ke):

ƒAƒNƒZƒTƒŠ        akusesari         (accessories)

ƒP|ƒL                kēki                (cake)

- Remember the difference between ƒN (ku) and ƒP (ke) by sound and letter association: Ku has two strokes, Ke has thrEE.

 

*     ƒ(me) and ƒi(na):

ƒJƒƒ‰     kamera            (camera)

- Note that ƒ (me) is leaning backwards, like a Japanese tourist attempting to photograph a tall building in a narrow street.

- ƒi (na) is more upright, almost as straight as the eonefs in 11, the atomic number of sodium.

 

*     ƒ€(mu) and ƒ}(ma):

ƒAƒ‹ƒoƒ€ arubamu          (album)

- ƒ€ (mu) is a character that you may not encounter very often.  It may be confused with ƒ} (ma).  Remember:

- You start to write ƒ} (ma) by moving your pen to the right; MAssachussetts is on the right of America.

- ƒ€ (mu) is also similar to the Greek letter ƒΚ (mū).

 

*     ƒ\(so) and ƒ“(n); ƒc(tsu) and ƒV(shi):

Katakana is sometimes confusing because of:

a)        The difference between Japanese pronunciation and the pronounciation of the word in the language from which it was

borrowed;

b)        The Japanese habit of abbreviation.

 

For point (a), the sounds that cause most confusion are l/r, f/h, and b/v.  For those of us from Northern England, the pronunciation of euf as eaf further complicates the matter!  Thus ealbumf becomes earubamuf.

 

An example of point (b) can be found in:

ƒpƒ\ƒRƒ“      pasokon          (personal computer)

- ƒ\(so) and ƒ“(n) are very similar, as are ƒc(tsu) and ƒV(shi), and it may help to learn them as two groups:

 

- ƒV(shi) and ƒ“(n) form SHIN.  The long stroke starts at the bottom, and works its way up; the short strokes are more horizontal than in ƒc(tsu) and ƒ\(so) – almost at a right angle, like the foot to the shin

 

- In ƒc(tsu) and ƒ\(so), all strokes form a steeper angle, and the long stroke starts at the top.  Think of SOaring up a blind SUmmit and then plunging down the other side.

 

*     ƒ†(yu) and ƒˆ(yo):

Visual and sound association: ƒˆ(yo) looks like a cOmb.

For ƒˆ(yo), think of a YOrker being bowled at three stumps.

 

 

 

3.        Similar hiragana:

 

*     ‚«(ki) and ‚³(sa):

‚«(ki) has 2 horizontal lines, ‚³(sa) has one.  Think of 2 KIdneys.

 

*     ‚³(sa) and ‚Ώ(chi):

You can trust the Japanese to complicate things!  ‚³ seems to contain a ecf, short for echif – but it must be viewed in a mirror!

 

*     ‚ί(me) and ‚Κ(nu):

Think of MENU.  Associate by sound: ‚Κ(nu) has a kNot, or a lOOp, at the end.

 

*     ‚ν(wa), ‚κ(re) and ‚Λ(ne):

‚κ(re) ends to the Right; ‚Λ(ne) has a kNot at the end.

 

*     ‚ι(ru) and ‚λ(ro):

Sound association: ‚ι(ru) has a lOOp.

 

*     ‚Δ(te) and ‚Ζ(to):

Visual association: think of ‚Ζ(to) as a sandal with a strap that separates the big TOE.

 

 

 

4.        Similar hiragana and katakana representing different sounds:

 

*     ƒT(katakana: sa) and ‚Ή(hiragana: se):

- In ƒT(sa), the long, final stroke ends to the left; in ‚Ή(se), the long stroke ends to the right.  SA is the onyomi (Chinese reading) for the kanji Ά, meaning eleftf (kunyomi, or Japanese reading: hidari).  SE stands for Southeast, which is on the right of the country.

 

- So: SA left, SE right.

 

- Associate katakana with left, and hiragana with right:

 

KL, Kuala Lumpur.

 

HR, Human Rights, Human Resources, Home Run, House Refurbishmentc  Form your own associations!

 

You may also remember the similarity of SE in hiragana ‚Ή and katakana ƒZ.